The Charleston metro area ranks as the nation’s 12th most dangerous place for annual pedestrian fatalities, according to a new study by national groups Smart Growth America and the National Complete Streets Coalition.
Also notable in the study: South Carolina ranked the fourth most dangerous state.
The Dangerous by Design 2026 report ranks the 50 states and the 101 largest metropolitan areas for pedestrian deaths per 100,000 residents over a five-year timeframe between 2020 and 2024. More than 80% of the areas examined have gotten more deadly over time, the study found.
“Our leaders are celebrating small improvements from historic deaths as some major victory, while thousands of people continue to be hit and killed while walking every year,” Beth Osborne, president and CEO of Smart Growth America, said in a press release. “If we were any other country, this would be treated as a national crisis. Instead, our leaders are quick to accept these deaths as a necessary aspect of our transportation system.
“If we were actually serious about safety, we would stop patting ourselves on the back for minor reductions in deaths and ask why thousands of people are still being killed from a problem we already know how to solve.”
In South Carolina
The Charleston metro area recorded an average 3.69 annual pedestrian fatalities per 100,000 residents, with 154 deaths reported between 2020 and 2024. The number is an increase from the previous five-year span, which saw 125 deaths between 2015 and 2019.
“We have seen elected officials and agency officials take a stronger interest in safety over the past several years, which is great,” said Katie Zimmerman, mobility advocate and executive director of Charleston Moves. “[But] one of the problems that still persists is, as improvements are designed, officials are talking about assessing two themes at once: safety for all, and then level of service for motorists.
Zimmerman said she would like to see a serious focus placed on slowing down motorists, rather than on ways to accommodate faster driving.
“You can’t encourage speeding motorists while also protecting lives,” she said.
On the statewide level, South Carolina averaged 3.37 annual deaths per 100,000 residents between 2020 and 2024, with 893 total deaths reported. The state recorded 750 deaths between 2015 and 2019.
Officials with the S.C. Department of Public Safety declined to comment on the report and its findings.
Personal impacts, little action
On Aug. 1, 2024, John H. Oakes Jr., of Murrells Inlet, was struck and killed while taking his daily walk along U.S. Highway 17. His daughter, Chrissy Oakes, has since taken up the banner to fight for pedestrian safety in the Palmetto State and beyond.
“We’re asking people to step outside and not giving them the tools to do it safely,” she said during a June 9 press briefing. “My dad didn’t deserve to die this way. My family didn’t deserve to go through this. And the woman who hit my father doesn’t deserve to live with this.”
She said the issue of pedestrian safety is bigger than any individual, and that the lack of protections and action by government officials is affecting thousands of people and entire communities every year. More importantly, she said that since losing her father, she has seen little to no meaningful change to prevent the same thing from happening to anyone else.
“This is happening in every state I have ever been in, and it’s something that if we continue to bring awareness to … we can definitely make a huge difference,” Oakes said.
Across the nation
In 2024, the year with the most recent complete federal data, 7,080 people were struck by vehicles and killed while walking in the U.S. Despite improvements from historic high death totals in 2022, the current rate is still 72% higher than fatalities seen in 2009.
The Dangerous by Design report ranked Memphis, Tenn., as the most dangerous metro area in the country, with a pedestrian fatality rate of 5.5 deaths per 100,000 residents — the highest ever observed in Dangerous by Design since 2009.
New Mexico continued to be the deadliest state in the nation for people walking, with a pedestrian fatality rate of 4.42 deaths per 100,000 residents.
The United States is falling further behind its global peers on pedestrian safety, according to the report. The report called on policymakers across the country and statewide transportation agencies to stop treating small reductions in fatalities as evidence that the problem has been solved and to adopt higher standards for success.
“We know how to prevent deaths on our streets,” said Heidi Simon, director of thriving communities at Smart Growth America and a co-author of the Dangerous by Design report. “Communities across the country have shown that safer street design saves lives. But one-off interventions don’t erase a decade of rising fatalities. … Until we commit to making safer street design the default, thousands of people will continue to pay the price.”
Read the full report online at smartgrowthamerica.org/dangerous-by-design.
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